Clouds in My Coffee
by Darcy Brandon
Summary: Takes place during Endgame. RossEames. If you don't like, then don't read.  Cowritten with I.Adler. The usual disclaimers apply.


_**A/N: Co-written by I.Adler. Read and review, **__**please. Usual disclaimers applicable.**_

The captain sat down at his desk with a heavy sigh and wondered if he'd just made a huge mistake. Keeping work and his personal life separate had always been relatively easy. He'd been married and the temptation to stray had never really been a problem for Danny Ross. Of course, the same couldn't be said of his (ex) wife and...Todd.

Now...now it was different. It had been nearly a year since his divorce. Since then, he'd been too busy for dating--the shock of his marriage ending, coupled with the rigors of heading a taskforce, had taken up too much of his time. And then he'd been given Major Case...

He hadn't expected there to be conflicting issues with his work and personal lives. Even with Wheeler (who was really more like a daughter than anything), Danny knew it would be fine. They'd learned how to keep their friendship in check during work when they'd been on the taskforce.

He had not counted on the problem being his other female detective.

He knew from the beginning that he would need Alex Eames as an ally--according to those who were familiar with his new squad, she was the only one who could get through to Bobby Goren.

It started simply enough. As expected, Goren was not his biggest fan. Danny Ross was not James Deakins. Danny Ross respected James Deakins, however, Ross had no desire to _be _Deakins. Ross was aware of Goren's eccentricites--who wasn't? He just wasn't concerned with catering to them, just as he wasn't about to put up with the infamous temper of Mike Logan.

What Danny Ross _was_ concerned with was the team as a whole and solving cases, as a whole. He knew that Goren was a very skilled investigator. But Danny was not prepared to compromise his team, or a case, because of any detective. It was his job as a captain to question his detectives, to make sure they could handle whatever was thrown at them, while keeping the case intact.

Despite what his new detectives would have liked to believe, Danny Ross did not stumble upon the job on his way home from Clown College. He was well-qualified. It didn't really bother him that not everyone realized this just yet. But he wasn't going to compromise while they figured it out.

It was, at times, painfully obvious that Goren did not entirely trust the Captain, and likewise, Ross did not fully trust Goren just yet. Eames, though--he knew from what he'd been told that she would be entirely reliable. He didn't realize that he would end up relying on her so much in helping him communicate with Goren. He also hadn't counted on her dropping by his office when problems arose between her and her partner.

It almost seemed as if the troubles with her partner were only part of an underlying problem. He hadn't figured out what . He'd seen her be sharp, witty and observant, smirking at whoever her comment was directed at...and then sometimes, like when she'd visit his office--or like when she'd run after him only minutes ago--there was something darker. Before he could figure it out, the clouds in her eyes would pass.

It reminded him of himself, after Nancy left. Well, after he'd told her to leave. The troubling thoughts were easily buried in work, but it was during downtime, or worse, when something unrelated went wrong, that the dark look in his own eyes would settle in.

He'd seen the same thing in Eames and he couldn't shake it. He knew what had been troubling him, but he had no idea what weighed so heavily on her mind. So he'd resolved to fix what he could on the surface.

When she followed him after the latest confrontation with Goren over the Brady case, he'd seen the look in her eyes, belying something deeper, and before he'd known it, said yes. _Go ahead, let Goren do his thing. _

And then as she was about to leave his office, in the same manner, he blurted out, "Would you like to grab a cup of coffee?"

It was a perfectly innocent request—nothing more than a CO having a discussion with a senior detective.

What surprised him the most, and what he was still thinking about after she'd left, was that she said yes.

**----And all the girls dreamed that they'd be his partner…----**

_It's just coffee_, she told herself. _He's your boss, and he just asked you for coffee. Probably wants to talk about the insanity here on the eleventh floor._ Try as she might, Alex couldn't quite fool herself into thinking that was all she'd heard in Captain Ross' voice, or that she only accepted out of professional courtesy.

It had been a long time between dates, and at least he was single. Plus, he actually listened to her, something that was becoming rarer around the squadroom. He'd been singling her out as the senior partner, trusting her judgment, and she found herself savoring that. He wasn't watching the Goren show; he was trying to see how their team worked, and recognizing that she was necessary. That last time, she could tell, he'd wanted to pull Goren off the case, and only her say so, her backing had made him say yes.

It was true, she'd been caught in the tension between Ross and Goren; she smiled a little, remembering how frustrated she'd been when she'd begun dealing with Bobby. The Great Detective was hard to take until you got used to him - but to his credit, Ross was trying, along with balancing a whole new squad and losing his protege to a bad influence.

_Speak of the devil_, she thought, passing Megan Wheeler near the vending area. The younger officer's face was redder than ever as she finished kicking a snack machine. The stream of curses was another sign that she'd been in a car with Mike Logan for too long. "There's a trick to it, Wheeler," Alex said, hip-checking it in the right spot. A candy bar tumbled to the floor. "But don't show your partner. He needs a good workout sometimes."

"Thanks, Alex," Megan grinned, grabbing her candy bar. "I've been meaning to talk to you, share notes on what's going on around here."

"That's a great idea. Not today, though. I think...I have a date." Remembering the hesitation in Ross' voice, the quick glance from his blue eyes, Alex smiled again. "Actually, I know I do."


End file.
